BEIJING, July 12 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- Today, Sundia MediTech (Shanghai) Company was named one of the 50 best companies for investment in China by the top venture capital investors. Sundia ranked #16 of Venture 50, an event organized by Zero2IPO, an advisory firm for China investment.

At today's ceremony in Beijing, Zero2IPO presented its annual Venture 50 list of the 50 best Chinese startups. Zero2IPO's rankings are often a herald of success for the companies listed. Following the unveiling of last year's list, 32% of the listed companies received venture capital financing or went IPOs within four months.

The 50 companies selected have already been narrowed down from more than 300 candidates by Zero2IPO based on industry analysis of expected investment return ratio. The final selection and ranking was done from a pool of 100 companies by a judge panel of 50 VIP investors, representing such companies as IDG VC, Softbank Asia Investment Fund, Sequoia Capital China, Legend Capital, Walden International, etc.

According to the competitions website, the ventures are judged on the basis of their management team and equity structure, business mode, industry, market and competitiveness, financial status and forecast, and operation risks and measures. Like last year, most of the ventures selected are high tech companies, predominantly from the IT sector, although with a much lower percentage than last year. Sundia was the only company in the final list from the pharmaceutical industry.

"We are honored to have been chosen as one of China's top ventures," said Sundia CEO Dr. Xiaochuan Wang, "This award represents recognition of our team, our business model, and our strategy. It will help us to further improve the quality and range of services we provide our customers."

Sundia has already received a round of Venture Capital financing from IDG VC in July of 2005, and is now in the process of soliciting a second round. Following its merger with United PharmaTech, Sundia is now kicking off a major expansion of its facilities, including the construction of an API cGMP pilot plant.

The pharmaceutical CRO industry in China right now is undergoing a period of tremendous growth, driven by the prohibitive cost of drug development. As pharmaceutical companies in developed countries attempt to slash costs associated with bringing a drug to market, they are increasingly looking to outsource more and more parts of the process to companies like Sundia that can capitalize upon lower operating costs in China.

Riding on this trend, Sundia has doubled its headcounts, and lab and office space every year for the past three. According to the company COO Dr. Tang Ming, last year Sundia's revenue jumped 5 times over the year before; and in the first half of this year, the company's revenue has surpassed the revenue of the whole year 2006.

Corporate Profiles:

Sundia MediTech was founded in Shanghai in 2004 by a group of veterans of the US pharmaceutical industry to provide drug discovery and development CRO services. Seeing the rapidly developing global CRO industry, the founders left their positions in the US and came to China to start their own company. Over the past 3 years, Sundia has thrived and built a strong reputation in its field. Following a 2007 merger with neighbor United PharmaTech, Sundia looks forward to continuing its phenomenal growth rate.

Founded in 1999, Zero2IPO is a leading integrated service provider in the China venture capital and private equity industry. Over the past seven years, Zero2IPO has become an unbeatable deal flow and networking source in China.

Zero2IPO's mission is to be the preferred service provider to businesses in the venture capital and private equity industry by offering an unparalleled knowledge and expertise to clients and partners. To ensure this, Zero2IPO provides a broad and deep array of services enabling entrepreneurs and investors to reach the next level of success.